1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to radar signal processing. More specifically, the present invention relates to the calibration and correction of phase and gain imbalances between the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) outputs of a radar receiver channel.
While the present invention is described herein with reference to illustrative embodiments for particular applications, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Those having ordinary skill in the art and access to the teachings provided herein will recognize additional modifications, applications, and embodiments within the scope thereof and additional fields in which the present invention would be of significant utility.
2. Description of the Related Art
Coherent radars measure target velocity along the line-of-sight by determining the Doppler frequency shift of the received radar return. Typically, an I/Q synchronous detector is used to form I and Q components of the received signal. These components are then digitized and processed by a digital FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) to form narrowband Doppler filters. If a single frequency signal is input into an ideal receiver with no phase or gain errors, the signal will appear in one filter of the Doppler filter output. If the I and Q channels do not have exactly the same gain or if the phase shift between the two channels is not exactly 90 degrees, a spurious signal, usually referred to as the "image", will be generated at the output of the Doppler signal processor. The magnitude of the spurious signal is directly proportional to the gain and phase errors between the two channels. The frequency of the spurious signal is equal to the frequency of the true signal, but with the opposite phase rotation.
In a digital Doppler filter bank of N filters, numbered 0 through N-1, with a signal in filter k, the image signal will appear in filter N-k-1. This spurious signal may be classified in error as a real target or may obscure real target returns. There is therefore a need in the art for a technique for reducing the magnitude of the spurious signal.
One technique for controlling the phase and gain imbalance involves the building of the radar receiver hardware in accordance with very tight specifications. For example, those skilled in the art will appreciated that to ensure that the image is 25 dB below the return signal, the gain and phase errors must be held to about 0.5 dB and 5 degrees, respectively. In applications where these tolerances must be maintained over a wide temperature range and/or where extensive measurement and trimming of circuit component values is not cost effective, additional design complexity must be added to the receiver design to ensure that the tolerances are met. The smaller the requirement for the image, the more receiver design complexity is required.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a simple technique that would allow the phase and gain imbalance to be measured and the error removed in real time. This would allow the image requirement to be met using a simplified and less expensive analog receiver design built to looser tolerances.